Scientific Method (episode)
The crew starts to exhibit strange genetic mutations. bioscan]] Summary The crew of the [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] are charting a binary pulsar they'd discovered in the region. The Captain complains of head-aches, and goes to bed for the night. Chakotay goes to bed as well, but when he gets there, he brushes his hair and it starts to fall out. In sickbay, Chakotay's condition has worsened considerably. He shows all the signs and symptoms of adult progeria (rapid aging), which has been brought on by over-stimulation of a gene. The Doctor relieves him of active duty whilst his investigation continues. In the mess hall, Neelix falls over in agony as his face changes color. Back in sickbay, Neelix's has large patches of pigment all over his face. The Doctor is surprised by his scan - the effect has been produced by over-stimulation of a gene again. Neelix reveals that his great-grandfather was a Mylean, so his Mylean genes are asserting themselves. Neelix and Chakotay complain about their ailments to each other, competing for the most sympathy. The Doctor and B'Elanna Torres are working on a sample of Chakotay's and Neelix's DNA. Looking at full magnification, the Doctor discovers a genetic tag on a part of both of their samples. Torres studies it, and discovers that it is transmitting a signal to somewhere. However, just as they're about to see where it's transmitting to, the Doctor's program begins deleting for no apparent reason. Torres falls over, spasming in agony, and he transfers himself back to sickbay. Torres is stabilised in sickbay, but soon more injuries arrive and the room is quickly filled with people. Tom Paris and the limited medical staff are not helped by the loss of the Doctor somewhere between the experiment room and sickbay. Suddenly, Seven of Nine hears the Doctor's voice. He's tapped into her cortical implant and is transmitting from the da Vinci program in the holodeck. Seven leaves sickbay and goes to see the Doctor. When she arrives, the Doctor suggests that the injuries of the crew are related to each other, somehow. Just before he transferred himself to the holodeck, he saw the frequency the signal was transmitting at, and adjusts Seven's optical sensors to that frequency. She looks around, but sees nothing out of the ordinary in the holodeck. She leaves, and conducts a ship-wide search for any anomalies. Very quickly, she spots some unusual things. A few crew members have odd contraptions on their heads, and there is an unusual person walking the corridors, which no-one appears to notice. She pretends not to see the alien, and he enters a turbolift with her. He probes her in the neck, and then leaves at the next deck. Seven continues her search, and soon discovers that most of the crew have various monitoring and testing devices attached to them. There are also a number of the aliens walking around with them, scanning and taking notes. Reporting back to the Doctor, Seven suggests producing an electrical pulse within the ship to knock out the genetic tags. The Doctor agrees, but is aware of the pain of such a procedure. Seven gets to work on her idea. However, in engineering, she is stopped by Tuvok because she has had to bypass certain security protocols. She tries to explain to Tuvok, but is suddenly joined by three aliens. She fires her phaser at one of them, bringing it into phase with the rest of the crew, as an explanation to Tuvok. In the brig, the alien, known as Alzen, describes herself as a Srivani medical researcher, on a scientific mission to investigate the crew of Voyager. This enrages the Captain because she realizes she'd been experimented on as well, which has caused her headaches and her bad temper. The Srivani, however, says that the experiments will go on without her, and that there's nothing that they can do about it. The Captain, still furious about their methods of scientific study, takes the helm and flies it directly at the middle of the binary pulsar. Alzen appears next to Janeway, to attempt to threaten her to turn the ship around or she'll kill her. Janeway has locked the course in, however, and only her command codes will release it. Alzen leaves, and two small ships detach themselves from the outer hull; one is quickly destroyed. The Captain manages to pilot the ship in between the pulsars, and out the other side. The Doctor removes all the devices from the crew. Background Information * Annette Helde previously played Karina in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Visionary". * In this episode we see the full extent of Chakotay's tattoo. Memorable Quotes "Shall I flog them as well?" :- Tuvok "I never knew you thought of me as reckless, Tuvok." "A poor choice of words...It was clearly an understatement" :-'Tuvok and Captain Janeway' Links and References Guest Stars *Rosemary Forsyth as Alzen *Annette Helde as Takar *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References electron resonance scanner; ''Intrepid''-class; Ktarian; lectrazine; Mylean; progeria Category:VOY episodes de:Verwerfliche Experimente nl:Scientific Method